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Wednesday, July 12, 2017

GUEST AUTHOR SHARON ST. GEORGE TALKS MEDICAL MYSTERIES

Sharon
St. George is the author of the hospital-based Aimee Machado Mystery series. Spine Damage,
the fourth book in the series, was released May 15, 2017. The first two books
in this series, Due for Discard, and Checked
Out, will be reprinted as part of Harlequin's
Worldwide Mystery series. A member of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of
America, Sharon also serves as program director for Writers Forum, a nonprofit
serving writers in Far Northern California. Learn more about Sharon and her
books at her website.

Why
Hospital-based Mysteries? Why Not?

What's the first thought that comes to
mind when we hear the word hospital?
Sickness? Death? Fear? Or do our minds leap to the most recent hospital tragedy
to hit the headlines? A stolen newborn, or a crazed shooter taking aim at
hospital workers? Is it any wonder so many of us suffer from hospital phobia? Then
we must ask why would an author choose to set a mystery series in a hospital?

The answer is Why not? Consider the number of medical dramas aired on television dating
from 1951 to the present. A quick online search reveals the number is more than
ninety, and most of them were set in hospitals.

Readers of a certain age might realize
how long the daytime program General
Hospital has been on the air. Its run began back in 1963, and continues to
this day. It is listed in Guinness World
Records as the longest-running American soap opera in production and the
third longest-running drama on television in American history.

What is it, then, that attracts mystery
buffs to medical drama? Let's look at some similarities that might explain the
fascination. What are the compelling ingredients in a mystery? First, something
goes wrong. Upsets the status quo. But even worse, we don't know who, or what,
caused that inciting incident.

The same elements that figure in a
crime can be found in the onset of a medical problem. In either case, the
investigation must begin. Answers must be found. In the same way that
detectives sort through clues at a crime scene, doctors will sort through clues
to that headache, but in their case, the patient's body is the crime scene.

Our detectives eventually set their
sights on several possible murder suspects. The butler, the creepy nephew, the
jilted lover, and so forth. Meanwhile, our doctors do the same. Their headache
suspects are muscle tension, caffeine withdrawal, sinus infections,
anxiety, and depression, among others.

The investigating continues, leads are
followed, tests are done. While detectives utilize a crime lab, doctors rely on
radiology and pathology labs. Results are considered, the number of possible
culprits is narrowed, until, finally, the perpetrator is identified and
arrested, either by the police, or by the appropriate
course of medical treatment. Ultimately, the case is solved. Whew!

We can deduce with some confidence that
readers and viewers who like answers, both criminal and medical, are the reason
some of us write medical or hospital-based mysteries. We offer them a BOGO. By one, get one free. Solve a
crime and solve a medical problem. Two for the price of one.

Do we know whether a steady dose of
medical mysteries will cure hospital phobia? We'll have to ask General Hospital fans. Maybe someone has
done a study.

Spine
Damage

Portuguese-speaking Paulo Ferrara is
brought into the Intensive Care Unit of Timbergate Medical Center in Northern
California with a gunshot wound to his spine. He struggles to explain his
situation via a medical interpreter, who happens to be Aimee Machado's mother,
visiting from the Portuguese Azores Islands. Paulo's teenage sister, Liliana,
has gone missing, and he has set out to find her, but before he can explain why
he was shot, he slips into a post-surgery coma. The only neurosurgeon who can
help him is Dr. Godfrey Carver, who is on the brink of suspension for not
completing his continuing education requirements. This puts him at odds with
Aimee, the hospital's librarian and Continuing Education Coordinator. Already
planning a trip to the Azores for vacation, Aimee and her pilot boyfriend, Nick
Alexander, re-trace Paulo's steps to the Portuguese archipelago where they
question Liliana's parents and learn that the girl vanished after attending a
party on a mysterious super-yacht. One of the missing teen's friends alerts
them to a possible connection to a shadowy online American boyfriend. Time is
running out as Paulo's coma deepens, but there are two lives at stake and Aimee
refuses to give up as she and Nick travel back to the States and to the San
Francisco Bay Area, looking for clues and working in cooperation with their
hometown police in search of the truth and the missing girl.

Newsletter

Keep up with Lois and Anastasia by subscribing to author Lois Winston's newsletter where you'll find special features, contests, and giveaways available only to subscribers.

SCRAPBOOK OF MURDER

An Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery, Book 6

SLEUTHING WOMEN II: 10 MYSTERY NOVELLAS

LITERALLY DEAD: an Empty Nest Mystery, Book 2

SLEUTHING WOMEN: 10 FIRST-IN-SERIES MYSTERIES

A collection of 10 full-length mysteries featuring murder and assorted mayhem, each the first book in an established multi-book series

A STITCH TO DIE FOR

Book 5 in the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series

MOM SQUAD: a Shadow Ops Novella

WE'D RATHER BE WRITING

BAKE, LOVE, WRITE

DEFINITELY DEAD

An Empty Nest Mystery, Book 1

CRAFTY CRIMES

a Trio of Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mini-Mysteries

PATCHWORK PERIL

An Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mini-Mystery

DECOUPAGE CAN BE DEADLY

MOSAIC MAYHEM

An Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mini-Mystery

REVENGE OF THE CRAFTY CORPSE

CREWEL INTENTIONS

an Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mini-Mystery

DEATH BY KILLER MOP DOLL

ASSAULT WITH A DEADLY GLUE GUN

THE ANASTASIA POLLACK CRAFTING MYSTERIES

Read about Anastasia in the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery seriesby Lois Winston. Assault With a Deadly Glue Gun, the first book in the series, received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Booklist. Kirkus Reviews called it "North Jersey's more mature answer to Stephanie Plum." Assault With a Deadly Glue Gunwas also a Book of the Year Award nominee from ForeWord Reviews, a Daphne du Maurier Award finalist, and a Readers Choice Award nominee from the Salt Lake City Library System. Other books in the series include Death by Killer Mop Doll, Revenge of the Crafty Corpse, Decoupage Can Be Deadly, A Stitch to Die For, and Scrapbook of Murder, plus three mini-mysteries: Crewel Intentions,Mosaic Mayhem, and Patchwork Peril. Look for more of Anastasia's adventures coming in the future.

About Me

I'm the crafts editor at American Woman magazine; the single parent of two teenage boys and a Shakespeare quoting parrot; caretaker to a semi-invalid, communist mother-in-law from Hell and her demon dog; daughter to a multi-married descendant of the Czars (supposedly); reluctant cat-sitter to Mama's extremely corpulent white Persian cat; a born Jersey girl; and star of my own amateur sleuth mystery series.